Over 100 boarded-up properties in the Indian Road district on the city’s west end are destined to remain an eyesore for at least another year after the Ambassador Bridge received a favourable ruling in Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal.

A $3.5-billion claim for damages by the Ambassador Bridge company against the Canadian government for alleged violations of the North American Free Trade Agreement has been rejected in Washington by a three-member tribunal.

“I can’t believe they’re in the state they’re in. I really can’t,” says trucker Robert Hood about the Ambassador Bridge’s guard rails — which he photographed to point out their missing parts, cracks and heavy rust.

An ongoing decline in Ontario’s manufacturing sector has largely led to truck traffic dropping about seven per cent at the Ambassador Bridge this past year compared to the previous year, said the company’s president on Friday.

The Ambassador Bridge company is asking the Federal Court of Canada to confirm it has the power to expropriate any properties in West Windsor necessary for its operations and that it is exempt from city bylaws.

I don’t know about impossible, but given that it’s taken almost 20 years to churn out five instalments of this series – something the early Bond franchise managed in six years, and the 1960s M:I TV show in just six weeks – these missions are certainly a lot of work